“Bell believed he had developed an implant.”
Rosalie looked at the black fragment.
“For ears?”
“Yes.”
“Could something like that remain inside someone for twenty-nine years?”
Whitcomb hesitated.
“Part of it could.”
Rosalie felt cold.
“Part?”
Whitcomb looked at Gideon.
“The object you removed may not be the entire device.”
Gideon’s hand moved toward his ear.
Whitcomb continued.
“There may be another piece deeper inside.”
Rosalie’s stomach tightened.
“Can you remove it?”
“Not here.”
“Where?”
“Denver, perhaps. There are surgeons with better equipment.”
Gideon immediately shook his head.
Rosalie expected that.
But Whitcomb had not finished.
“There is something else.”
He pulled out another letter.
“My father wrote this after Bell disappeared.”
Rosalie read the date.
October 1871.
Whitcomb pointed to a paragraph.
Bell had left Coldwater after one of the children’s procedures nearly ended disastrously.
